For Young B2B Procurers, Online Purchases Are Common

Gen Y B2B buyers are far more likely than their older counterparts to make online purchases, per results from Acquity Group’s 2013 State of B2B Procurement Study. The survey of corporate buyers with annual budgets exceeding $100,000 found that 90% of those aged 18-35 make company purchases online. The propensity to shop online declined with age, to 68% of those aged 36-45, 45% of those aged 46-60, and just 29% among those aged over 60. The study follows research from hybris released late last year, which found 94% of B2B procurers believing suppliers need to invest more to make their e-commerce experiences as effective as consumer websites.

In this latest study from Acquity Group, 63% of Gen Y buyers said they have purchased from Amazon Supply at least once, and 40% do so frequently.

Younger buyers also appear to spend more time researching their purchases – those under 60 said they spend 1-2 hours on average researching prior to a major purchase, compared with 30 minutes or less for the over-60 crowd. The younger set also said they are most likely to research purchases at least 50% of the time, compared to less than 10% of the time for the older bracket.

About the Data: The data is based on a survey of 207 buyers with annual procurement budgets of $100,000 or more, drawn from a range of industries.